TILLY/BELAIRE/RINGO D’STARR ROCK EMO’S
Last night at Emo’s here in Austin, Texas, attendees of the earth-shattering performances of Tilly and the Wall, Belaire, and Ringo Deathstarr were witness to a brilliant becoming, as three already immensely respectable acts combined forces for an evening of sonic epiphanies, with each band blowing away expectations to an infectiously joyous crowd. The room teemed with life as if every track by every band meant the world to each person in the club, and the acts rode these vibes to the top of their respective games. With so much good to be said about all three groups, I thought it best to do a show review about each one separately, in chronological order.
Ringo Deathstarr
Leading off the night were relative newcomers Ringo Deathstarr who nonetheless have managed to claim the throne as Austin’s best new band around seemingly overnight with this, one of their strongest performances yet. Starting with a slow churn that saw the band testing the waters with gorgeous guitarwork and echo-laden vocals, the foursome quickly whipped into crunchy numbers such as “Down on You”, to the crowd’s delight. All the while lead singer Elliot Frazier kept up his mysteriously aloof nature and threw guitars to the ground with such carefree effortlessness and reckless abandon as to suggest the shoegazers have finally become rockstars. We here at Cannibal Cheerleader believe that Ringo Deathstarr don’t have to prove it to us anymore; these guys are some of the finest rock musicians not just in Austin, but the whole country. Aligned like a firing squad, all four members in a line at the front of the stage, with the audience as their willing victims, Ringo Deathstarr brought their A-game as an opener and managed to set the bar sky-high for the following acts.
Ringo Deathstarr – “Down on You”
Belaire
No performance would’ve been harder to follow than Ringo Deathstarr’s guitar-throwing, confetti filled, wall-of-sound extravaganza, but Belaire managed to take the challenge in stride and delivered a performance both musically solid and creatively inventive, turning kitsch keyboard midi-tracks into genuine hip-shakers and delighting rockers and ravers alike. Having only just recently reformed with the addition of three new members, Belaire nonetheless proved they can still bring the goods by combining synth-experimentalism with rock aesthetics and dance grooves into a hypnotic combination that, while requiring some getting used to, ranks among some of the best damn music in Austin today. Not recommended for those into bland pop, Belaire tore through their bizarre cache of oldies and debuted tracks from their upcoming fall release, the details of which have yet to be released. Poised effortlessly behind a wall of keyboards set up at the front of the stage, this quintet proved guitars aren’t the only instruments that get the people moving in Austin.
Belaire – “You Really Got Me Goin’”
Tilly and the Wall
One can only imagine the anxiety of having two bands absolutely kill before your band has a chance to play, the crowd already in a frenzy before your arrival, and you knowing you have to give it your all or go home now. That was the attitude that Tilly and the Wall seemingly attacked the stage with last night, bursting forth with such fervor and energy as to claim this was the only show that ever did and ever will matter to the band. With a dazzling light show blazing behind them, a cornucopia of streamers and balloons cascading through the audience, and a Jamie Presnall tap dancing on a raised in the middle of it all, Tilly tore through a set of oldies such as “Nights of the Living Dead” and some new tracks off of their latest LP O such as “Pot Kettle Black”, all of which the audience connected with instantaneously. The band’s music combines infectious pop melodies with subversive indie-rock lyrics on love, loss, desperation, and the outsider experience, sounding like a twee band on steroids, with all the sarcastic and scathing humor of such acts with a degree of punk fury and inventiveness to boot. This of course was the case for last night’s show, as Tilly and the Wall left it all on the table, furiously playing through a brilliant set of blazing sing-a-long duets and guitar shrieks before calling an end to the night’s festivities. Exhausted and exhilarated all at once, all us crazy kids bid adieu to Emo’s in hopes that maybe next time we’d get a warning before another show with three acts as good as these guys caught us off guard.
Tilly and the Wall – “Pot Kettle Black”
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ALL GIRL SUMMER FUN BAND REVEAL THIRD LP
With a name that reads exactly how the group’s music sounds, All Girl Summer Fun Band have surprised us with the announcement of their third LP, entitled Looking Into It. Supposedly the tracks on this record, while still maintaining the bubblegum simplicity and wild energy of the earlier albums, will rock harder and louder than previous efforts. We’ll take it any way you give it to us ladies! Check out the Pitchfork article for more details. Here’s the tracklist:
01 Not the One for Me
02 Something New
03 Oh No
04 Trajectory
05 Lost
06 Everything I Need
07 The Only Ones
08 Rewind
09 Looking Into It
10 Plastic Toy Dream
11 This Will Never End
All Girl Summer Fun Band – “Samantha Secret Agent”
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RA RA RIOT POST SONG FROM UPCOMING DEBUT LP
Ra Ra Riot have posted on their Myspace a new version of “Dying is Fine”, a song originally on their self-titled EP, that will now be featured on The Rhumb Line, their debut LP on Barsuk. The band’s intricate instrumentation suits this higher-end production and this recording seems to capture much of the band’s raw live energy. Ra Ra Riot will be swinging back through Austin Oct. 3rd at Stubb’s, so don’t miss them!
Ra Ra Riot – “Dying is Fine”
Yeesh! Long post! Hope this will tide you over for the weekend people, I need to catch up in my work on the paper version of Cannibal Cheerleader. Until then, leave a comment or two and tell me what you think!
Posted: July 18th, 2008
Categories:
all girl summer fun band,
austin,
belaire,
cannibal cheerleader,
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stubb's,
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tilly and the wall
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2 Comments.
ZACH DE LA ROCHA SIDE PROJECT DEBUTS
Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine fame is finally debuting a song from his side project One Day As A Lion with former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore. Named after the infamous graffiti which read “It’s better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb,” the band clearly has retained the radical politics of Rage while providing for a more stripped down drum-and-bass aesthetic. The song “Wild International” is available for listen as the band’s Myspace, check it out.
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BODIES OF WATER SAY ‘SORRY FOR SKIPPING TX’
Here’s the latest
Myspace bulletin from our friends in
Bodies of Water:
“hi guys, there is a lot going on these days. i feel the burn.
we put up a new song on our player called ‘water here’. its from our record that comes out on tuesday.
it’s real fun to put up these songs and have them out into the world and that you guys want to hear them.
thanks.
ALSO, los angeles friends….
we are playing a show tomorrow night at the echo to celebrate the release of this record.
and for our non-la friends, we’ll be touring around the country soon. all the dates are up on our page. im really sorry to texas. i so wish we could be going there this time around. its complicated… you’re right in the middle of the country, gas is so freaking expensive (we’re flying, not driving to the east-coast to do the loop), blah blah blah.
SPEAKING of texas, when we’re there in march for sxsw, we recorded these songs at DAYTROTTER”
507 E. 6TH MYSTERY DEEPENS
Reader ‘modern mel‘ posted a comment yesterday about the mysterious 507 E. 6th St. location that Of Montreal will be playing in August. She writes:
“
yeah the club is the place formerly known as ‘bourbon rocks’. i wonder if emos got smart enough and bought that place out. that place is HUGE and has a lot of potential for sure. i know this show will definitely sell out.“
Sounds reasonable, but the Bourbon Rocks website is still running and says their address is 508 E. 6th. Also their online calendar says nothing about an Of Montreal show. Did Bourbon Rocks close without shutting down their website? Has Emo’s bought out this space? Some real investigation will have to take place this weekend, so stay tuned!
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M.I.A. REALLY CALLING IT QUITS?
Say it ain’t so M.I.A.! However, if her revamped website is any indication, perhaps the UK via Sri Lanka rapper will be devoting her time to an upcoming clothing line instead of making more tunes. Check it out here and tell us your take on the situation!
Posted: July 17th, 2008
Categories:
507 east 6th,
a certain feeling,
belaire,
bodies of water,
bourbon rocks,
daytrotter,
m.i.a.,
one day as a lion,
rage against the machine,
ringo deathstarr,
tilly and the wall,
zach de la rocha
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2 Comments.
TRYOUTS – BODIES OF WATER’s A CERTAIN FEELING
We’re introducing a new feature here at Cannibal Cheerleader called ‘Tryouts’ where we get an album before its released and pre-evaluate it to see if the LP ‘makes the team’. Today we’ve got a trio of new entries so let’s start with LA’s Bodies of Water, a much-blogged about four-piece of much-lauded instrumentation and modernist leanings. Let me just say, if you buy one album of nature poetry and bizarre string parts let it be A Certain Feeling, because everything that might have annoyed you about the band’s earlier works have been thankfully wiped aside on this new release. The vocals are crisper, the music is more rock-oriented, and the band overall has finally come into their Arcade Fire-y own, complete with sing-a-long choruses and distorted guitars enough to give even the most jaded of record reviewers the urge to nod their heads to the beat. For all the pseudo-religious, hippie-collective vibes you get from Bodies of Water, there’s still no criticism you can mount against an excellent crunchy guitar solo. This one definitely makes the team! Check out the first track from the album below.
Bodies of Water – “Gold, Tan, Peach, and Grey”
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TRYOUTS – SUNFOLD’s TOY TUGBOATS
So, when other bands change lead singers on different songs they still retain the same name, even when the whole musical style of the band seems to change (Doherty’s introspective croon to Barat’s rockstar rage anyone?). Regardless, when North Carolina’s Annuals change lead singer the band they feel the need to rename the band for the time being to Sunfold. A strange move maybe but the music on the band’s debut LP Toy Tugboats doesn’t seem to suffer any for it – the music may be a little more rocky a little less folky, and Kenny Florence sings a lot like Circa Survive’s Anthony Green, but the band still seems to bounce along like some indie-rock dream come true. Sunfold is yet another one of those bands where you can imagine some lucky kid in Nowhere, Texas downloading a track and having his life changed forever (for me that band was Death Cab, go figure). What Sunfold lacks in the bombast of Annuals’ big sweeping choruses it makes up for in intricate string parts and country-tinged authenticity. Basically if you liked Annuals you’ll like this, and if you like indie-rock you’ve of course already fallen in love with Annuals. Enough said, makes the team. Here’s the first track from Sunfold’s Toy Tugboats.
Sunfold – “Oregon”
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TRYOUTS – TILLY AND THE WALL’s O
Damn you Tilly and the Wall. Damn you for crafting such poised and perfect indie-rock, familiar but different every time with that same lost romantic tinge that appeals to us lonely rocker boys so freaking much. Yes, Tilly and co’s new LP O (named after the blank circle that will decorate the album’s cover and is meant to be filled with the buyer’s own artwork) brings back the none-too outworn cute-rock formula, combining lilting female vocals, tap-dancer’s shoes instead of proper percussion, and this go around an extra helping of distorted guitarwork and some definite angst-ridden attitude. The youthful naivete CC has so lauded in favorites like Be Your Own Pet is definitely present on Tilly and the Wall’s O and the sound is better and braver for it, matching youthful rage with the bizarre combination of foot-stomps, guitar warbles, piano keys, and the odd horn section here and there. If you’re interested in being happy at some point in your indie-rock appreciation, I invite you to get into Tilly and the Wall. Makes the team and is sure to win the popularity contest. Check out the first track from O below.
Tilly and the Wall – “Tall Tall Grass”
Last night at Emo’s here in Austin, Texas, attendees of the earth-shattering performances of Tilly and the Wall, Belaire, and Ringo Deathstarr were witness to a brilliant becoming, as three already immensely respectable acts combined forces for an evening of sonic epiphanies, with each band blowing away expectations to an infectiously joyous crowd. The room teemed with life as if every track by every band meant the world to each person in the club, and the acts rode these vibes to the top of their respective games. With so much good to be said about all three groups, I thought it best to do a show review about each one separately, in chronological order.
Leading off the night were relative newcomers Ringo Deathstarr who nonetheless have managed to claim the throne as Austin’s best new band around seemingly overnight with this, one of their strongest performances yet. Starting with a slow churn that saw the band testing the waters with gorgeous guitarwork and echo-laden vocals, the foursome quickly whipped into crunchy numbers such as “Down on You”, to the crowd’s delight. All the while lead singer Elliot Frazier kept up his mysteriously aloof nature and threw guitars to the ground with such carefree effortlessness and reckless abandon as to suggest the shoegazers have finally become rockstars. We here at Cannibal Cheerleader believe that Ringo Deathstarr don’t have to prove it to us anymore; these guys are some of the finest rock musicians not just in Austin, but the whole country. Aligned like a firing squad, all four members in a line at the front of the stage, with the audience as their willing victims, Ringo Deathstarr brought their A-game as an opener and managed to set the bar sky-high for the following acts.
Ringo Deathstarr – “Down on You”
No performance would’ve been harder to follow than Ringo Deathstarr’s guitar-throwing, confetti filled, wall-of-sound extravaganza, but Belaire managed to take the challenge in stride and delivered a performance both musically solid and creatively inventive, turning kitsch keyboard midi-tracks into genuine hip-shakers and delighting rockers and ravers alike. Having only just recently reformed with the addition of three new members, Belaire nonetheless proved they can still bring the goods by combining synth-experimentalism with rock aesthetics and dance grooves into a hypnotic combination that, while requiring some getting used to, ranks among some of the best damn music in Austin today. Not recommended for those into bland pop, Belaire tore through their bizarre cache of oldies and debuted tracks from their upcoming fall release, the details of which have yet to be released. Poised effortlessly behind a wall of keyboards set up at the front of the stage, this quintet proved guitars aren’t the only instruments that get the people moving in Austin.
Belaire – “You Really Got Me Goin’”
One can only imagine the anxiety of having two bands absolutely kill before your band has a chance to play, the crowd already in a frenzy before your arrival, and you knowing you have to give it your all or go home now. That was the attitude that Tilly and the Wall seemingly attacked the stage with last night, bursting forth with such fervor and energy as to claim this was the only show that ever did and ever will matter to the band. With a dazzling light show blazing behind them, a cornucopia of streamers and balloons cascading through the audience, and a Jamie Presnall tap dancing on a raised in the middle of it all, Tilly tore through a set of oldies such as “Nights of the Living Dead” and some new tracks off of their latest LP O such as “Pot Kettle Black”, all of which the audience connected with instantaneously. The band’s music combines infectious pop melodies with subversive indie-rock lyrics on love, loss, desperation, and the outsider experience, sounding like a twee band on steroids, with all the sarcastic and scathing humor of such acts with a degree of punk fury and inventiveness to boot. This of course was the case for last night’s show, as Tilly and the Wall left it all on the table, furiously playing through a brilliant set of blazing sing-a-long duets and guitar shrieks before calling an end to the night’s festivities. Exhausted and exhilarated all at once, all us crazy kids bid adieu to Emo’s in hopes that maybe next time we’d get a warning before another show with three acts as good as these guys caught us off guard.
Tilly and the Wall – “Pot Kettle Black”
With a name that reads exactly how the group’s music sounds, All Girl Summer Fun Band have surprised us with the announcement of their third LP, entitled Looking Into It. Supposedly the tracks on this record, while still maintaining the bubblegum simplicity and wild energy of the earlier albums, will rock harder and louder than previous efforts. We’ll take it any way you give it to us ladies! Check out the Pitchfork article for more details. Here’s the tracklist:
Ra Ra Riot have posted on their Myspace a new version of “Dying is Fine”, a song originally on their self-titled EP, that will now be featured on The Rhumb Line, their debut LP on Barsuk. The band’s intricate instrumentation suits this higher-end production and this recording seems to capture much of the band’s raw live energy. Ra Ra Riot will be swinging back through Austin Oct. 3rd at Stubb’s, so don’t miss them!
